After Obama Apologizes to World, Somali Pirates Take US Hostages

Apr 8, 2009

So Barack Obama goes on his world tour, apologizes for America. Everybody says, ‘Wow, it’s great to have such a humble guy leading the country.’ Humble? It takes profound arrogance to go around the world, apologize for your country, to say that your country is lacking, but only now is your country worth anything, because you happen to be president. That’s not humility. That’s profound conceit and arrogance, which is part and parcel of Barack Obama. So Obama goes around the world, he apologizes, he goes to Turkey, makes all these wonderful, flowing statements about Islam, we’re not at war with you guys, we love you guys, Islam has had a marvelous, marvelous impact on shaping the world, including my own country, he says, at which point you want to say, ‘Is he talking about Kenya or the United States of America?’

And so promptly after doing this we got some sheik, some guy named Hussein in Beirut, (paraphrasing) ‘I love this guy, Obama, I really think he means it, I really think he means he loves us.’ And then the next thing we know the Somali pirates hijack a US ship out of Alabama. After all this love, and then the ChiComs and another country have penetrated via computer our power grid and so forth. Why? Why is all this spying going on on the United States? The world loves us now. The world is supposed to really dig us, and we now learn that our electricity grid’s been penetrated by the ChiComs and others, and then the Somali pirates, who we haven’t heard from in awhile, we got American hostages. Is this 1979 all over less than 100 days in? American hostages on board a ship taken by the hijackers. So what happens? Well, the Obama administration says they’re working on a response. They’re working on this; they’re working harder than they’ve ever worked on anything in their lives, they’re working diligently on this, the Obama administration working to respond to the first pirate attack against American citizens in recent memory.

Notice this did not happen during the previous administration when the Somali pirates were attacking everybody, collecting so much money, we were speculating that they could bail out Citibank. They could end up owning Citibank they were getting so rich. So Bush leaves office, Obama comes in, runs around the world, apologizes for the country, Somali pirates move in for the first pirate attack on the United States, holding Americans hostage on board the ship. Senior Navy — (interruption) I know, just stick with me. Stick with me. Leave that up there. ‘A senior Navy official in Washington said Wednesday that the Obama administration was talking to the shipping company to learn ‘the who, what, why, where and when’ of the incident in which the Maersk Alabama and a crew of some 20 people was seized by pirates.’ Okay, what response were they planning on? What were the various responses that the Obama administration could have taken here?

Well, diplomacy, they could have negotiated with the pirates. I’m sure they were considering that. Maybe paying ’em off, just pay ’em the money, whatever the ransom is, pay them the money, another one of these parachute drops, hoping the pirates drown as happened the last time the Saudis did this. Maybe try the new tone, remind the Somali pirates that we’re not at war with them. Maybe beg, maybe just go on TV, ‘Please stop, this is making us look bad. We have no gripes with you pirates. Go ahead and pirate anybody else, but don’t pirate us.’ Number four, surrender, pay the ransom, or number five, fight them. While the administration’s planning all of this, while they’re busy studying their response, the Americans have taken the ship back.

The Pentagon says the American crew of a hijacked ship has regained control of the vessel. Pentagon sources spoke on condition of anonymity, because information is still preliminary, but sources said today that the hijacked crew apparently contacted the private shipping company they work for. They did not call the government. They called the company. The shipping company, Maersk, has scheduled a noon press conference in Norfolk, but it hasn’t started yet. So it is believed now that the crew, the Americans, took the ship back from the pirates. I think this is the first time the Somali pirates have been so humiliated. In previous instances, the crews have just done nothing but allowed themselves to be treated as prisoners, but apparently the Americans have retaken it. And I assume that they know this at the White House, while they’re in the middle of planning a response, that the Americans took the ship back. Never thought of self-reliance. Well, that could have been option number six. The White House could have said we’re too busy here, you guys handle it, we’ll get around to it in time. We don’t know what their response was going to be. They don’t, either, I’m sure. They have no clue. They’re probably, ‘Whew, boy, we dodged a bullet there.’ But now we’ll hear, ‘Did the Americans use excessive force,’ and will we apologize for some role that we played in this?

I don’t think that we will apologize for taking back the ship. I don’t think anybody in the government will be that stupid. But I do think it’s possible that we might apologize for being there, so close to known pirate waters, for having tempted them, and to say that this is all going to change during the Obama administration, these acts of threatening the innocent Somalis of the world by getting so close to where their pirate waters are. I don’t know. We only have experience and intelligence to guide us. But what we do know is that the crew of the ship apparently, this is according to the Pentagon, did not wait for any response from Washington. They’ve simply retaken the ship. This is bad PR for the Somali pirates. This is going to make it look like anybody can take the ship back once they’ve been hijacked. It’s something they are going to have to consider.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting today: ‘Obama Team is Readying for a Confrontation with [Benjamin] Netanyahu,’ who is the new prime minister of Israel. This is representing a sea change in US foreign policy, because Obama is now going to insist on a Palestinian state and even more concessions from Netanyahu and the Israelis. A friend of mine sent me a note today, and it’s true: ‘It’s like a bad dream. The Somalis are hijacking ships. The Iranians are taking time out from building their nuclear weapons to file death penalty charges against Americans. The North Koreans are firing off missiles, and what’s Barack Obama worried about? American arrogance, Islamic sensibilities, Israel?’ These are the problems in the world? Israel? America?

RUSH: By the way, speaking of North Korea, Kim Jong Il has asked for yet more broadcast time here on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network regarding Obama’s apologies to the world.

(playing of Kim Jong Il spoof)

RUSH: Kim Jong Il is still not happy with Barack Obama. He has apologized to everybody but Kim, and all of his face time on his European trip took accurate PR time away from Kim Jong Il’s exciting military success, the launching of a missile into the middle of the Pacific Ocean on target.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It’s time for news update, ladies and gentlemen, and this is about the Maersk Sealand. To my eyes it’s a giant freighter. It’s a pretty big cargo ship. It’s the ship that’s been hijacked by Somali pirates. And we were told right as the program began that the ship’s crew had regained control of the ship from the Somali pirates while the Obama administration was in discussions about how to handle this. We have a news update for you on this, ladies and gentlemen. The ship’s captain is still being held by the pirates. The crew is apparently not under such tight control, but the ship’s captain is still being held captive by the Somali pirates, which is okay. In fact, that’s even cool! The ship’s captain is a CEO. He’s the leader. He’s boss! He deserves to be held captive by the pirates. The great unwashed, the crew members, are free — and that’s the way it ought to be. But that captain, it’s good that he’s still captive of the pirates because he is a CEO.